The real stories from inside the F1 paddock

Monster’s rival fails to impress F1 media

Franz Tost is not necessarily a great strategic thinker, indeed I have heard him described in a number of less than complimentary terms than “team principal” over the years. Still, one man’s bag carrier is another man’s legend. Anyway, when asked about whether F1 should go to Azerbaijan, Tost went into the usual spiel about how sport transcends politics and all is well in Cloudcuckooland. This is, of course, unadulterated tosh. Sport does not operate above politics, it is either used by politicians or not, depending on whether or not the sport is willing to sell itself to the highest bidder. The only people who try to make out that sport can solve problems are those with a vested interest. Tost was then asked if he felt it was right that accredited journalists should be denied visas on political grounds, as happened at the recent European Games in Baku.

“There must be a reason why the visa was denied,” he said. “I don’t know the background.”

The second part of this sentence was bang on the money, the first part showed that if one does not know what one is talking about it, it is best not to say anything, as one can end up looking ignorant.

“To be honest, I don’t care about this,” he said. “We go there, we race there and that’s it. It’s your problem how you get the visa.”

I have always believed that it is best that the teams and the media have respect for one another. We are all in this together and whether the sport likes it or not, it is the media that has created F1’s marketing power. I wonder if the people at Monster Energy’s rival understand that the media does not always need to be nice to those who lack understanding, charm and respect.

So, Franz, how shall I put it? We don’t care if your cars blow up or if you completely fail to meet the lofty ambitions you talked about at the start of the year.

Spot on Joe. I felt this way during the 1969/70 Springboks Tour of the UK and I feel it still.

What I’m unsure of regarding Tost is whether he’s been conned and naive or just plain disingenuous.

I do acknowledge Tost’s reference to China, Russia and Brazil but I believe we should have sufficient intelligence and judgement to be able to draw a line in the sand. In my view, Azerbaijan represents a crossing of the line.

Monster’s rival? Blimey Joe, looks like somebody’s properly pissed you off… Did you know that Monster comes in a can twice the size and significantly cheaper than other winged alternatives? Just happened to notice that when buying me qually beers…

There was a good discussion around this same topic with Bahrain. Head back and read a few of those posts for some insights into Joe’s thoughts on his role as a reporter and commentator. The TL;DR is that someone must report what is happening and sticking your head in the sand not the right approach.

Reminds me a little of the episode of the wonderful, exquisite “Episodes” where, hard up and being chased for $8M in back taxes, Matt is asked to attend the birthday party of a mass murdering despot who is a fan of “Friends” and be paid half a million dollars. He struggles with his conscience and the need for income. He goes, but is devastated to find that David Schimmer who also went, was paid a full million..

“These people” like Tost, Bernie, Flav and many of their clique, live in a sanitised world, isolated by their wealth. The issues raised by Joe are just something for their “people” to deal with. They will see only luxury and things pleasing to the eye in their travels. Until the effects of any regime, impinge directly upon them, they will not be acknowledged.

If to paraphrase Ron Dennis, some teams make history, and journos write about it (a noble activity, no question, in spite of Ron’s original inference); Tost will never be more than someone history happened to. Which would perhaps explain why he sound so peevish.

If Tost is sufficiently obtuse not to understand the responsibilities that come with being a front man – then he should not be a front man. He may be very good at organizing things (he may not be) but he should not be making public statements in support of governments that are viewed as being corrupt. His remarks showed that he is better suited to life as a mechanic than life as a public representative of the sport. Secondly, there is a subtle difference between doing things and making history. Teams do things (often amazing things) but history is written (therefore made) by those who chronicle events. It is a semantic difference. Teams are the subjects of history, not the creators.

It isnt Franz Tost´s job to give out visas or to decide who gets them after all. Why not get angry at Azerbaijan or Bernie who decided to race there in the first place ??? Blaming an Austrian for Azerbaijans issues is pretty low.

He He He …no idea who Monsters rival is….spat coffee out yet again, its becomming a regular occurrance. When you offer an opinion, is it sometimes on a wing and a prayer or just wings ! Brillant yet again.

I tend to agree with Franz. Why should he or we care about the journalist plight. I have more important things to worry about and it appears so does he. Seems just another stupid question posed by a journalist for their own agenda. He answered honestly. Oh the horror.

As far as which countries are suitable for a F1 race, Azerbaijan may deny visas and imprison a few journalist while China does it on wholesale scale . Russia has pretty dodgy politics as well as complicity in killing Europeans. Bahrain hasn’t changed since the great big boycott…racers race and that who’s paying the money to go race so go. other wise stay home and be unemployed. we call that pissing in the wind

One needs to be careful about throwing criticism around and indeed about comparing the way countries operate. The differences are subtle and it is not an easy task to draw a line. Banning the free press and banning a member of, say, Hezbollah pretending to be a journalist can be reported in the same way, but they are very different. It is wrong to lump a totalitarian dictatorship in the same boat as a properly functioning democracy. I don’t like what I read about Azerbaijan but I’m going there to see what it is really like and will then be in a better position to judge the rights and wrongs of the situation.

The other point is that there is a difference between going to a country purely for the cash and going to a country because it has strategic value. One can dig up human rights issues in most countries but one must be careful with comparisons….

I’ve always thought that one of the biggest skills with language is getting one’s point across, not by saying things, but by not saying things.
“Monster’s rival” Joe, very subtle! Another brilliantly crafted piece of reading, thank you.

I actually think this is a fairly petty, spiteful post. ‘Not caring’ is a neutral state – it’s the absence of care, rather than the presence of malice. I’m pretty sure if you took a poll of every harrassed team member, from bosses to mechanics to pit crew to drivers about how much they cared at any given moment during race weekend about the plight of the media, they’d shrug and look blankly at you.

So it’s not on his list of priorities how journos sort their passes and travel. So what?!

Nice rant Mr. Saward, Tost could have showed a bit more empathy but being emphatic doesn’t seem to a job requirement for team bosses.

Still Tost has as much influence on where F1 races as you do, he’s just doing his job there just like you’ll do.

The smart thing/answer would have been to point you for an answer to the entitie(s) responsible for the decision to race in Baku.
Journalists being refused at the European games are indeed not his problem and neither is the Human Rights situation in Azerbaijan.

As his team achieved a fine 4th place this race I guess there’s not much for you to remind people of and Franz can party the night away in lovely Budapest.

Not sure how to send in an unconnected question. I had thought that Kvvat got a ten second penalty yesterday to be added at the end of the race. Would this not have put him in third place and elevated Dan Ricciardo to 2nd??

In 1985 I was a spotty 15 year old in love with motor racing, now Im a fat 45 year old in love with motor racing.

Back then in 1985 I was appalled when we were told this was to be our last Grand Prix at Kyalami because of apartheid. I have to admit I knew something wasn’t right in South Africa, but didn’t understand just how wrong it was. I do now and realise that losing the Grand Prix was right, because we were not a civilised society that deserved to be showcased on a world stage, even though then it was not as well publicised as it is today as a showcase of a country.

I then read many years later that the South African government sent out a message to the world community by executing 6 political prisoners at 6am on the Thursday practice began. The race used to be on a Saturday then as we were a “Christian” country. The race was effectively politicised, probably as they knew it was the last one.

Fast forward 30 years and now its a pre requisite to have questionable human rights if you want a race, because now its all about money, unless you a traditional motor racing nation. And because of losing the race we lost Kyalami, the name lives on at the silly little go kart they build using the old back section, but its not a real race circuit.

For the rest, I dislike both Tin Can Teams, as neither are real racing teams in the mould of Tyrrell, Williams, McLaren or even the never were’s like Ensign, Arrows etc They are just marketing operations that use Formula 1. Its why when I want an energy drink I chose one made by the son of a Formula 1 World Champion, who himself is a bio diverse farmer.

I saw this press conference and was not at all impressed with those comments at all as well, he sounded ridiculous.
Your last word was priceless, Franz’s cars not meeting his lofty goals, cause they are not and we don’t (care).
Tao

Great post Joe. (Sorry, late to the party reading this, been on Jury duty).

I remember about 12 or so years a go a certain (very) senior team member (retired s few years ago now) being rather annoyed that he had to listen to Franz dish out advice on what was wrong with the car he had built. It did not go down well. At all.